Is it just me, or is this year starting off with a bang? In a good way, of course! I’m finally feeling like I have a good sense of direction for some non-blog (and non-work) projects I’m working on, and I can’t wait to see where things go in 2013. I’ve been tackling these projects with a renewed sense of confidence and enthusiasm. I’ve been burning the midnight (and morning) oil, but it’s felt great. I’m rediscovering my more geeky roots, and I’ve been having way more fun than I expected.
Here’s what an average day is looking like for me recently:
- Wake up and immediately find coffee
- Go through online programming exercises (I’m learning Ruby and Rails)
- Get ready for work
- Commute and listen to inspiring and informational podcasts on the way
- Work the 9-to-5
- Commute back and listen to more podcasts
- Go straight to Zumba (no time to go home first!)
- Teach or take class
- Go home
- Make and eat dinner
- Blog? (I’m cutting back to make more time for my other projects)
- Go through more online programming exercises
- Bed (phew!)
Things I’m forgetting to work into the schedule but need to add: time for reading (books & magazines) and time for reflection. I’m thinking I may need to alternate nights for some of these activities to spread things out. I’m having to cut back on blogging and Zumba a bit, but I’m hoping to pick them up more over time.
Reader Request: I’m looking to get some feedback about one of my ideas. Do any of you work/volunteer for animal rescue groups OR do any of you follow any rescue groups or middle men groups that do online fundraising? (Also OR – have any of you used a crowdfunding web site (like GoFundMe or IndieGoGo)?) I’d love to chat about my idea. Please leave me a comment or email me at thechiclife at gmail dot com.
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One of the projects I’ve recently taken up is blogging for Scoop Charlotte! I recently posted a blog for an easy Valentine’s Day recipe you can make without needing to know much about (or even liking) cooking. I’ve shared some additional new-to-cooking tips and tricks on that post (click), which you may enjoy. But, I also wanted to share some of the photos and the recipe with you guys right here on TCL.
This is not only a fool-proof Valentine’s-worthy meal but a wonderful everyday-meal, too. I’m a big fan of pot roast. I guess some people don’t think of it as healthy, but I usually opt for a leaner roast cut called “eye of round” that keeps it healthier. The chianti adds a great dimension to the flavor of the dish and is wonderful served with the finished result.
Chianti-Braised Pot Roast
This simple slow cooker meal will make you look like a rock star for a romantic Valentine’s dinner “in.” You don’t even need to know how to cook to make this recipe. Let the slow cooker do all the heavy lifting for you. Be sure to save this recipe for later in the year, too. You don’t have to celebrate anything to enjoy this yummy (and easy!) dinner.
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 7-8 hours
Serves: 2 (with some leftovers likely)
Ingredients:
- non-stick spray
- approximately 2-3 pound eye of round (or sub chuck roast, though this cut isn’t quite as lean)
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus additional to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus additional to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 4 medium to large red skin potatoes (eyes/skin removed/peeled), cut into 1 – 1 1/2″ pieces
- 1 medium onion (yellow or white is fine), skin and outer layers removed, cut into quarters
- 1 cup baby carrots, rinsed (yay! no chopping!)
- 2 stalks celery, cleaned, cut into approximately 2″ pieces
- 1 cup chianti (a good quality that you would drink – save the extra to serve with dinner)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- cooked rice, optional
- Italian parsley, optional – for garnish
Directions:
- Spray inside of slow cooker (cooking vessel) with non-stick spray. Place eye of round in center. In order: sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary. Rub spices into the meat.
- In order: place potatoes, onion, carrots, and celery around and on top of the meat.
- Pour wine over the meat and vegetables. In a medium bowl, add tomato paste. Whisk in beef broth. Pour mixture over meat and vegetables.
- Cover slow cooker and cook for 7-8 hours, or until the meat is tender to your liking.
- Remove meat and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice into serving pieces and place in a low bowl with potatoes, vegetables, and broth. Note: If you used chuck roast, you may wish to skim some of the fat before serving the vegetables and broth.
- Serve and enjoy! Note: You could serve this over rice, but it will probably be enough to just serve the meat with the potatoes and vegetables. It’s up to your personal preference! If you want to get extra fancy, garnish with fresh, Italian parsley.
You may also like:
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Thanks for reading!
Reader question: Are you eating in or going out for Valentine’s Day this year?
And remember to email me (thechiclife at gmail dot com) if you have any experience: managing animal rescue, donating online to rescue groups, using crowdfunding web sites. Thanks!
I had plans to blog throughout my Christmas vacation, but I obviously didn’t post much at all. Instead, I took break to hang out with my family, enjoy the free time, and just relax. It also didn’t help that I seemed to keep forgetting my camera whenever I went somewhere, including our big Christmas dinner. Though I didn’t take as many photos as I would have liked, I did manage to snap a few photos here and there (with the DSLR and my shiny new lens, plus some with my iPhone)…
I’m so excited about my news lens. I’ve been wanting a 1.4/f lens for the last few years, so I’m thrilled to finally have it to use. Now, I just need to get some kitchen experiments under way so I can play with food and photos! Oh, and I’m also really looking forward to using my new snuggie. I think it may be coming with me to work. Maybe I won’t need my space heater as much?
I definitely used the snuggie on the long car ride home. And speaking of car rides, my new favorite way to pass the time (when I’m not driving, of course) is perusing the AMA on reddit. Have you seen it? It’s fascinating! I read about a WW2 veteran, a police officer, Mark Cuban, an ER doctor, and an ex-homeless man, to name a few.
Hope your holidays were fun, relaxing, and wonderful.
I’ll be posting details about my fourth annual Eat in Month challenge later today! I’ll be posting tips on my Facebook page, too, so be sure to like The Chic Life on Facebook to get extra tips.
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas from my parents’ house!
Bailey’s been getting plenty of attention from my family, which he loves.
My mom and sister decided to whip up a huge, Filipino feast for our Christmas Eve dinner this year.
Mom made a dish she said we haven’t had in almost twenty years – morcon. Morcon is a dish made with flank steak that is rolled up with ham, kielbasa, hard-boiled eggs, and olives and then cooked in a tomato-based sauce. It sounds and looks kind of weird, but it tastes great!
Here’s the spread.
And here’s the finished morcon. We’re definitely not waiting another twenty years to make this one again. It was a winner.
Sis is a dim sum fan, too, and she made a Filipino-Chinese fusion with steamed buns filled with pork adobo.
These were so good that I had two more for an after-dinner snack! (dinner was really early)
Lumpia is always welcome at a Filipino feast.
They made this version with chicken and a wide mixture of vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, and zucchini. Yum!
Here’s my plate – don’t forget about the pancit.
{chowing down}
Flan – a dessert we often had at holiday meals growing up. We haven’t had this one in awhile, either.
{my piece – I’d forgotten how good this was}
Everything on the table was a winner tonight. I can’t imagine a better Christmas Eve dinner for our family.
After eats, we moved on to open some presents for our guests – hubby and Matt.
Bailey helped open presents.
And after some gift-opening fun, mom, Sis, and I got started on a new food project – suman. We’ve never made suman before. Well, mom said she used to make it growing up. Suman is a Filipino dessert made with sweet rice, coconut milk, and salt.
It was quite the process, but we did it. We ended up with twenty finished suman.
The finished suman is then topped with sugar or served with sugar on the side. This stuff is good, and it really takes on the flavor from the bamboo leaf it’s cooked in, but I still prefer my Sweet Rice (the one made with brown sugar). Either way, it was a fun project to do with my family.
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I’m seriously geeking out on my Christmas vacation. I majored in Computer Science in college, but I’ve never really worked as a developer. But, I’ve been feeling the itch to code lately, so I’m trying to teach myself Python. I’d also like to take a look at some HTML5 tutorials since I’m only self-taught on HTML from several years ago. Who knows? I’m having fun, so I guess it’s all good. What have you been up to?
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Reader question: If you celebrated, what did you eat for Christmas Eve dinner? Do you have any traditional Christmas Eve eats?
Since we were hosting our first Thanksgiving ever at our house, my approach was to keep things simple. Simple eats, simple (simpler?) decor. I started our table decorations with a mustard yellow table runner that I got on sale awhile back and added orange, harvest-themed place settings that I scored at Williams Sonoma a few years ago for 80% off. I added in four coordinating napkins and four red-toned napkins (all also on sale). Those were all the decorations I had on hand, so I next had to figure out what to purchase to put on the table.
I considered doing a fun centerpiece, but our family likes to keep the food where we can get to it easily – right on the table. Not to mention, the serving dishes are often passed around and land in different places, so I didn’t want things getting in the way. Additionally, if I’ve learned anything from enjoying Thanksgiving with my family and hubby’s family, it’s that fancy table decorations are not required for a successful feast. Now, don’t get the message confused. If you’re into fancy, beautiful, elaborate centerpieces, I think that’s great. What I’m saying is that if you’re not into getting all Martha Stewart on your table, that’s great, too.
I decided to go for a minimalist look with vases, candles, and split peas (you’ll see). It’s not the most unique or revolutionary idea, but I did try to take measurements and list shopping info (pricing, stores) to help you out.
Here’s what I used:
- 2 hurricane-style vases (with bottoms, not just sides) @ $7.99 each at Michael’s – 8″ tall with 5 1/2″ diameter mouth (your newspaper may have a 40% off coupon you could use on one of these)
- 2 candes @ $3.50 each at Michael’s – 6″ tall with 2 1/2″ diameter
- orange split peas (or lentils) – I used 4 cups, but you could add more (I wouldn’t recommend less, though) or even alternate colors – we got ours from some bulk bins, but you could also try the aisle with beans in your local grocery store
- leaves – free
I considered doing a larger vase setup in the center but ultimately decided to let the turkey be the star and take center stage.
I first put these together by filling the bottoms of the vases with some split peas, adding the candle, and then pouring the rest of the split peas around the sides. But, the easier way ended up being to just put all the split peas in the vase and twist and push down on the candle to get it into wedged into the split peas.
Be sure to place the vases side by side when you put them together so you can get the candles at the same height before placing them where you want on the table.
There are so many beautiful variations of fall leaves available at this time of year. Pick some that will pop out against your table, runner, or tablecloth. I grabbed a handful of leaves with my Zumba friends after class on Saturday morning and picked out which ones I wanted to go on the table.
The best thing about using leaves over some other ideas I had is that the leaves are flat and wont’ get in the way of the variation dishes of food. It’s all about the eats, people.
And one of my favorite things about this year’s decorations is that it was so fast to put together. It only took me a couple minutes to lay out the runner, place settings, and napkins. The vases took about the same to put together, and it was maybe a minute to spread the leaves out on the table. Simple, fast, affordable. Yes!
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Here’s the full table from our Thanksgiving celebration…
Click here to read about our Thanksgiving celebration 2012 part 1 and click here for part 2.
Thanks for reading!
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Reader questions: Do you do elaborate or simple Thanksgiving/fall table decorations? How do you style your table?
